We had a baby!

Our beautiful baby girl was finally forced into this world on June 26th! I was almost two weeks past my due date, so they decided to induce me. After 28 hours of labor, she was finally born! And let me tell you... about 15 of those hours were probably the worst of my life... but I'll get there.

This story is a little gross, but really not so bad. Read on if you dare...

My mom flew in the night of the 24th to help us out because Daniel's paternity leave was supposed to be over by then. Well... it hadn't even started! My doctor had scheduled me to be induced on the 25th, so at least she got to be here for the birth. We checked into the hospital around 1 pm and they hooked me up to some pitocin. For the first few hours I was like, "this isn't so bad, maybe I don't need an epidural!" We were having a good time watching the world cup and hanging out with all the doctors (because we were the only L&D room watching the world cup...).

After a few hours of soccer and a nice nap I was starting to feel it a little more... and then a little more, and more and more and more until I told Daniel that I just couldn't do it and we should just go home (maybe around midnight). Because that made sense. They checked me and I was dilated enough for an epidural, but Abby's heart rate was dropping with each contraction, so they wanted to wait a while before putting more drugs in my system. And I hated them all. The hours stretched on and her heart rate was still dropping with every contraction... I was NOT having fun and I'm pretty sure I said mean things to everyone who came into the room.

Sometime around 7 am, Daniel went to get breakfast and he missed all the fun! My contractions were seconds apart and I had mentally checked out from all the pain. The doctor came in and told me they might need to do a C-section because of how she was reacting to the contractions, they prepped me for it and had me sign some consent forms. Then I started throwing up and that caused my water to break and they lost their read on Abby's heart rate so every doctor in the world showed up right then and so did Daniel. Afterwards he told me he was never worried, but I was in so much pain and throwing up so much that I was pretty sure I was dying. And I kept saying I couldn't do it and I wanted to go home. It's a good thing one of us was rational right then! They had to put some internal monitors on her head and THAT was super fun... but they found her heart rate again.

After a couple more hours like this, someone (I still don't know who... and why it took so long to think of...) had the brilliant idea of turning the pitocin down. And guess what? It WORKED! Her heart rate leveled out and I got my epidural just in time for the US to play Germany! We watched the game, they came in and checked me again and it was time to push, I pushed, and she was born at 3:44, just in time for us to watch the 4 o'clock game! So she's obviously going to be a soccer star.

It was a very painful day, but worth it for this little cutie!

She's cuter now, I promise. Here, I'll show you:

This is her model pose. She's pretty good at it :)

What have we been up to?

Turns out I'm bad at blogging. But everyone already knew that.

We've been busy here at the Cox home! Which will not be the Cox home for long. We're moving! To Southern Pines. It's like... half an hour from here. Daniel will still be at Bragg. Did I trick you? I tricked you, I know it. We found an area nearby that we LOVE, so we're going to buy a house! I can't believe we're old enough to do that... so there will be another update on that when everything is finalized!

We're also STILL having a baby. I'm bragging to anyone who will listen that I can still touch my toes from a standing position. It's pretty sad that I now consider that one of my major life accomplishments... But anyway, we'll have a baby in the next couple of weeks! We also can't believe we're old enough to reproduce. And they're just going to let us KEEP her... no tests or anything. Suckers.

Harley is still great (except for when she eats the plants in my garden which is always). She just turned one last week and she's really the best dog for us. She loves to play, but she's also extremely mellow. She has graduated to sleeping in our bedroom (on her bed by the dresser, NOT in our bed--ew) and she weighs a whopping 55 pounds! We don't think she'll get much bigger.

We went to the beach last week with some friends--it was a blast. Even though at least four people tried to push me in the ocean because they thought I was a beached whale (ok maybe that didn't really happen). We took our dogs and Harley had a great time playing fetch in the water. It took her a bit to stop being scared of the waves breaking, but eventually she was swimming around like a champ! We got some awesome seafood (and hush puppies!!! I missed those so much...) after our day at the beach and it was just a great day!

Daniel is still playing army every day. Oh wait, he's not playing any more--he's actually in the army. He leads a team of medics and it sounds like they have some good times together. He got to learn to give an IV, which I thought was terrifying, but he thought it was pretty cool. He keeps jumping out of airplanes in the middle of the night and sleeping in fields. I always thought he was a little strange...

So we're doing pretty great out here! We're cleaning up the house and getting ready for baby (still nameless--we're hoping she just tells us what her name is when she gets here) and enjoying life!

And here are some pictures:

Beginning of the third trimester to two weeks ago (week 36). The only pictures I took. Whoops!

The lovely coffee table Daniel refinished for our living room! Much better than the ugly black one I got from Walmart...

My stinky husband :)

Sometimes I feel crafty. And I'm a dummy, so I got home buying for dummies. I don't feel like as much of a dummy any more.

Harley enjoyed playing fetch at the lake.

She always thinks she needs attention... silly pup!

There was a review of the 82nd--pretty cool to watch! Daniel is towards the front, I didn't think to take a picture until they had passed.

The lovely ocean (and my not-so-lovely feet)

My creepy husband. I love him.